$117k Bitcoin Loss For Austrian Hacked Over Public Wifi Network

With the rising interest of people worldwide in crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, it was only a matter of time till the first thefts would occur.

A man in the Austrian city of Innsbruck reported a theft of $117k from his account whilst he was logging into a public Wifi network in a restaurant where he was having lunch, just to check the status of his account.

Though he immediately warned authorities, it is clear that police forces are not yet ready for these kinds of crimes.

Austrian authorities have so far been unable to confirm whether the victim’s computer had been hacked when he logged into the public network in the Innsbruck restaurant or whether he had possibly been hacked prior to his claim. The amount was, according to the Austrian police report, moved to an “unknown, untraceable account.”

As Bitcoin matures (it hit a record $8k this week in New York) more companies will probably start to offer security measures to those who invested early, given the great number of hacks reported in the first exchanges, such as Mt. Gox and the many incidents that have already taken place in South Korea.

Next to Bitcoin, Ethereum is also on the rise. It surged to an all-time high of $500 this week, as many see it as less ‘bubble’ territory than Bitcoin, given the lower investment threshold.

Ether has now risen by more than 5,000 percent since the start of the year. It is currently the second-largest cryptocurrency and has a market capitalization of more than $40 billion.

This week’s rally for both Bitcoin and Ethereum followed a prediction from billionaire investor Mike Novogratz who said that Ethereum would hit $500 by the end of the year while he sees bitcoin getting to $10,000.